


Science and Health Intelligence Enrichment for Life Development Summer Camp

by Welfycat



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Everyone is female, Gen, Minor Canonical Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 14:25:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,832
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/504449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Welfycat/pseuds/Welfycat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summer camp is the best place for friendship, adventures, and most of all, science!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Science and Health Intelligence Enrichment for Life Development Summer Camp

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Avengers Reverse Big Bang 2012 and based off of chibifukurou's absolutely gorgeous and inspiring art found [here!](http://chibifukurou.livejournal.com/57536.html)  
> Content Notes: Discussion of child abuse (non-graphic) , scene of bullying. PG-13  
> Author Notes: This is a genderbending AU. All characters are female.  
> A hundred thousand thanks to my beta emeraldsnakes for her endless patience and encouragement.

Briana Banner stepped off the bus and quickly moved away from the outpouring of other campers as she stared around the campground. She hadn't expected so many other people to be there, when she'd gotten on the bus there had only been seven other kids, but by the time the bus picked up the last group it was completely full. There was a woman with a bullhorn standing under the archway that read _Science and Health Intelligence Enrichment for Life Development Summer Camp_ and it took Briana a minute to focus over the din and hear what she was saying.

"Campers, collect your belongings and locate your cabin assignments. If you need assistance approach one of the camp counselors. Science Cabins are located on the east side, Athletic Cabins are located to the west," the woman called and then started to repeat herself.

Briana found where the counselors were helping to unload luggage from the compartments under the buses and she hesitated at the edges for a few minutes while the other campers swarmed to find their bags. She was one of the smallest campers she could see, which wasn't unexpected considering at ten years old she was among the youngest who were allowed to attend. It was still a little bit intimidating and she waited until the coast was clear before she darted forward and found her duffle bag at the edge of the remaining items. She slung it over her shoulder and started up the path, her free hand bunching in the side of her dress as she kept to the side of the path so others could run by without bumping into her. Briana had told her mom that no one went away to camp in a dress, it was camp after all, but her pleas had fallen of deaf ears so here she was looking like she could attend church when almost everyone else was in shorts or leggings or jeans.

By the time she reached the cabins on the east, things outside had calmed down a bit and Briana was able to climb the steps to the first cabin she saw to look at the roster of campers. A girl, probably fifteen or sixteen, stuck her head out the door and looked down at Briana. "Cabins for the younger campers are down that way," the girl said, pointing and then brushing her blonde hair away from her face. "You're probably at the very end."

"Thank you," Briana said, nearly falling down the steps as she backed away. She bypassed the rest of the cabins, only climbing the steps when she reached the last one on the east side. There were two doors to each cabin, the cabins divided down the center, and the list by 7A had six names listed. The list by 7B only had two names, Briana's and someone named Toni Stark. Briana didn't know what that meant, but maybe the girl she was sharing with was there on scholarship too.

Briana stepped inside and looked around. There was only one bunk bed, but there was an inside bathroom at the back of the room which was more than she had hoped for. There was no sign of anyone else so Briana set her duffle bag on the bottom bunk, figuring she could move if the other girl was afraid of heights or something. She knelt on the bed and peered out the window, watching as kids ran back and forth and shouted and seemed like they already knew each other. It wasn't that much different from being in her room at home, watching from her window as she sat on the edge of her bed with a book, but she still felt a little homesick anyway.

She was just starting to wonder if the other girl on the list was going to show up at all when the door opened and a girl even shorter than Briana marched in with a weary set to her shoulders and a frown on her face. "You didn't have to walk me all the way up here," she said.

It became clear who she was speaking to a few seconds later when a thin man in a suit followed her into the room carrying two suitcases. "I'm afraid I did, Miss Stark, for I fear you would not have arrived at all had I not accompanied you."

The girl, who must have been Toni, reached up to adjust where her short hair was falling out of her left pigtail. "It's fine, Jarvis. I'll stay put. You can go tell my father that your mission was a success."

The man set down the suitcases and gave Briana a small nod before returning his attention to Toni. "If you should require to leave, what are you not to do?"

Toni sighed. "Hitchhike back to the city," she said in a long suffering voice.

"Or?" the man pressed.

"Or steal one of the counselor's cars," Toni said.

Briana blinked in alarm.

"Or?" the man asked again.

"Or build my own motorized vehicle," Toni scowled this time. "Especially not one that can fly."

"Indeed not," the man said. "Instead, if you need something what will you do?"

Toni smiled, just a little, and stepped up to give the man a hug. "Call you."

"Precisely. Have a good time at camp, Miss Stark," he said, giving Toni a hug and then fixing her pigtail for her.

"Bye Jarvis," Toni called, leaning out the door to watch the man walk away.

Briana stared at Toni, not sure at all what to make of that exchange and both slightly afraid and impressed that Toni had perhaps done all of those things she had said.

Toni stepped back in the room and tilted her head at Briana. "I guess we're sharing a room then, for however long that lasts," she said.

"I'm Briana. Do you want the bottom bed?" Briana asked, getting to her feet. "I don't mind the top if you don't like being up high."

"No problem, I like the top," Toni said, grabbing onto the bottom of the bed and hoisting herself up to the top bunk without any help from the ladder. "So, what's your field?"

Briana relaxed a little. This was why she'd wanted to come here, where other kids would care about more than playing games or dolls or dressing up or whatever else they did. "I've been researching a lot in electromagnetic fields, that's what my project was in, but I'm also interested in biology and experimenting with types of radiation."

Toni smiled as she hung her head down from the bed. "Computers and circuitry, though I'm interested in just about everything."

"Can you really build a flying car?" Briana asked eagerly, the idea sounding awesome now that she had more time to think about it.

"Not yet, but soon. I don't have access to my father's labs all the time and most boarding schools aren't too keen on letting us make anything fly," Toni said with a shrug as she rolled over, her right pigtail falling out of its tie this time. "Tends to lead to broken windows and stuff."

Briana giggled because she could picture that.

"Come on, let's go see if they've got any of the labs open yet," Toni said as she twisted around and jumped off the top bunk. "They aren't exactly state of the art around here, but it's not too bad."

Briana followed Toni out the door, following her at a run up the path to where the other buildings were gathered. Suddenly she wasn't homesick at all anymore.

*****

It was early evening, just after their first dinner at camp, and the woman with the bullhorn had announced that they were all to gather at the fire pit for the welcoming. Toni had hung back at the table, even though she'd finished eating about ten minutes into the meal and had been drawing robots on her napkin ever since, and Briana stayed with her figuring that she probably just didn't want to get trampled. As far as Briana could see they were almost the smallest in the camp and most of the campers, especially on the athletics side of camp, were really enthusiastic and didn't like to look where they were going. In the short time she'd known Toni, Briana had learned that Toni was nine but this was her third time at SHIELD Summer Camp. Toni had also been kicked out of four boarding schools and at the end of the school year she had made her own way home, all the way across the state, before anyone had even realized she was missing - hence her escort to camp.

When just the last of the kids were clearing out of what Toni had referred to as the mess hall, Toni leapt up and shoved her napkin in her pocket. Briana followed Toni down the path that led to the huge fire pit and stage at the center of camp and yelped when Toni grabbed her hand just before they reached where people were lined up and getting seated.

"Shh, we'll get caught," Toni said, her voice not quite a whisper.

Briana let Toni lead her off the path and within a minute they were surrounded by trees. "Shouldn't we be at the welcoming?" she asked, looking back at where she could see the edges of the nearby buildings.

Toni shook her head. "Nah, that's boring. Nikki Fury, the camp director, she gives the same speech every year about how we are the future, and responsibility, and whatever. We're awesome, we know we're awesome, so we don't really need to stick around to hear it. Besides, last year I adapted the latch on one of the windows in the computer lab, so even if the door is locked we should be able to get in without a problem," she said, not letting go of Briana's hand as she talked and maneuvered through the trees.

Briana could kind of see Toni's point, speeches were pretty boring and they hadn't got to go in the labs at all today, but she was also more than a little worried about getting in trouble. "Why are we going through the woods?" she asked, recognizing that Toni didn't really care about getting in trouble and wouldn't be swayed by a reminder of the possibility.

Toni looked back, her eyebrows raised. "So we don't get caught, duh. Everyone should be at the welcoming, but the counselors don't like to attend the official stuff any more than we do. Besides, it's quicker this way."

They walked for about five minutes, Briana's grip tight around Toni's hand and she was quietly relieved that Toni wasn't letting go, when Toni stumbled to an abrupt halt.

"Are we lost?" Briana asked, her first fear when she'd looked at the camp brochures her science teacher had given her suddenly a terrifying reality.

"No," Toni whispered. "I thought I heard something."

Briana immediately thought of all the animals that could inhabit the area, animals that would be bigger than them, and maybe hungry because of deforestation. "Should we climb a tree? Get high enough so that nothing can eat us?" she whispered, glancing around for trees where they might be able to reach the lowest branches.

"Eat us?" Toni asked with a frown, but before she had time to elaborate two girls came leaping out from behind the trees and tumbled to a stop a short distance from Toni.

Briana stumbled back against a tree trunk and stared wide-eyed at the two girls. One was taller, her pants and vest dark and her hair cropped close to her head, the second was thin and quick and her red hair hung loose around her shoulders.

"Oh, science campers," the smaller girl said, relaxing her stance. "We thought you were someone else, trying to follow us."

"Nope," Toni said, shoving her hands in her pockets as she rocked between her heels and her toes. "We didn't see you if you didn't see us."

"Deal," the taller girl said immediately, sticking her hand out for Toni to shake.

"As inspiring as your loyalty is, all of you have somewhere you should be right now. Barton, Romanov, I expected as much from the pair of you, but who else do we have," a woman said, stepping forward with a frown as she looked over all of them.

"Science campers," the smaller girl said again, shrugging at Toni and Briana regretfully.

"You could have given us a head start, Coulson," the taller girl said, running her hand through her cropped hair and glancing around the woods. "You couldn't catch all of us if we split up."

The woman, Coulson, placed at hand on the girl's shoulder. "True, but Romanov would come back for you and I can send one of the other counselors after those two. And you know I can catch you."

"Only because I let you," she replied with a waggle of her eyebrows.

"Naturally. Let's go," Coulson said, motioning for Toni and Briana to come with her as they started walking back out of the woods.

Briana followed, not even sure how much trouble they were in, and shook her head dramatically when she saw Toni glancing back into the woods like she was considering her chances.

"Lose something, Maria?" Coulson asked as soon as they were out of the woods and Maria Hill, one of the science counselors, came hurrying up to them.

"Really, Toni? It's the first day," was all Maria said, leaving Coulson to herd the two athletics campers down the path.

Toni shrugged and then spun around. "You know me."

Counselor Hill raised an eyebrow. "Unfortunately true. Now let's go join the rest of your group. I hear there are s'mores for the first level cabins this year."

Toni wrapped her hand back around Briana's. "You drive a hard bargain. What do you say?" she asked, turning to Briana like Briana had ever had a say to begin with.

"Okay," Briana said and clung to Toni's hand as they walked back to the fire pit.

Most of the older campers were dispersing by the time they arrived and Toni nudged Briana and grinned. "See, no speech and s'mores."

"Is everyone at this camp crazy?" Briana asked as they were passed long sticks with marshmallows already skewered on the ends.

Toni shrugged as she pulled Briana up to an empty spot near the fire. "Only the people worth knowing."

*****

"Where are we going?" Briana asked two days later as Toni veered away from the building where their morning chemistry lab was supposed to be. In the short time she'd known Toni she had already discovered a very predictable pattern; if Toni was supposed to be somewhere, she wasn't there, if Toni wasn't supposed to go somewhere, that's where she went. It was predictable, but it was also going to shorten Briana's life expectancy by at least twenty years due to heart stress.

"I already know all that stuff, don't you?" Toni asked as they walked up and the hill that helped divide the science camp from the athletic camp.

Briana considered it a moment, thinking about the list for the chemistry lab that they were supposed to be working through over the next three weeks. "Yes, but, all the other labs are going to be busy in the morning sessions, so what are we going to do instead?"

Toni shrugged. "Anything but sit there and listen to the importance of wearing safety goggles in the lab. I mean, what do they think we are, five?"

That was true enough so Briana continued to hike up the hill after Toni. They hadn't gotten in real trouble for not being where they were supposed to be yet.

"Move!" a girl shouted, racing down the hill and knocking over Toni as she dashed by.

"Hey!" Toni called back, glaring after the girl and then examining her hands with a frown.

Briana knelt down next to Toni and brushed away the grass to look at the red skin underneath. Toni wasn't bleeding but it still had to have hurt. "Are you okay?"

"Fine. Seems like Loki is still Loki," Toni grumbled as she let Briana pull her up.

Briana looked down in the direction the girl had gone. She thought she'd vaguely recognized the girl in their labs with the long dark hair but it had been hard to tell when everything had happened so quickly. "She doesn't seem to have many friends," Briana observed as they continued up to the crest of the hill and started back down to where the main field stretched out and the lake circled around.

"Maybe if she'd be a little nicer people, people would talk to her," Toni pointed out. "Every year it's the same thing. The only reason she even comes is because her sister and her cousin are over on the athletics side and their parents ship them all off every year. They're like from Sweden or something. Norway. I don't know, somewhere over there. I shared a room with Loki last year. Never again."

"Oh," Briana said quietly. It was kind of nice to know that Toni wasn't automatically best friends with everyone she shared a room with, but she didn't know what to make of Loki. Toni took off jogging once they reached the bottom of the hill and Briana hurried to keep up.

They came to a stop near the edge of the main field and Toni dropped down next to a small blonde girl who was wheezing miserably. "You okay?" Toni asked.

The girl raised her inhaler with one hand but didn't speak.

"Do you need one of the counselors?" Briana asked, recognizing the symptoms of asthma immediately.

"No," the girl gasped. "Just sitting."

Toni shrugged and stretched out her legs and Briana settled next to her. It seemed like they were going to spend their chemistry lab watching a lacrosse game. Toni started talking, about anything and everything, and Briana watched with a smile at the blonde girl's stunned expression.

"What's your name?" Briana asked when Toni was briefly distracted by something on the field.

"Stephanie," she said, sounding much better than she had ten minutes prior.

Briana introduced herself and Toni and turned to look when she heard footsteps running up to them.

"You alright, Steph?" the girl asked, dropping her lacrosse stick to stretch.

"Fine, Bucky. Go play," Stephanie said, her inhaler still clutched in her hand.

Bucky looked curiously at Toni and Briana, their camp shirts easily identifying them as belonging on the science side, but she shrugged and took off back to the field.

"Oh," Toni said suddenly. "Remember how I said Loki has a sister and a cousin here, that's them."

Briana leaned forward to see where Toni was pointing. "The tall blonde girl?" she asked, not quite sure she had the right person.

"Yep, that's Thor and next to her is their cousin Sif," Toni said. "They've got more cousins, but I think they go to another camp."

"Wow," Briana said as Thor caught the lacrosse ball and raced across the field.

"Yeah," Stephanie said with a look of awe and frustration as the lacrosse game continued.

*****

"I don't know, I think that's too much potassium," Briana said, adjusting her goggles as she balanced on the edge of the stool. It was ridiculous, really, in a laboratory designed for teenagers that she still wasn't tall enough to easily reach across any of the work spaces.

"We're okay," Toni said, pausing to make a notation and then returning her attention to the vial. "Look, see?"

Briana frowned as she watched the slowly frothing reaction in the bottom of the test tube. "I thought we didn't want an exothermic reaction," she said as the air pockets started to get bigger. She dropped down off of her stool and was grateful when Toni got down a few seconds later.

"Yeah, okay, maybe we should just go outside for a minute," Toni said, her words not quite panicked as she glanced at the liquid that was starting to spill over onto the counter. "Run!"

Briana grabbed Toni's hand a pulled and it what felt like forever but was actually faster than Briana had ever moved before they were outside and leaning against the door. They both panted, eyes wide behind their safety goggles, and less than a minute later they heard a loud popping sound and then the wail of a fire alarm.

"Well," Toni said as they stepped away from the single-room building, "you were right."

Briana nodded. "We should follow the lab projects intended for us to work on."

"No," Toni said as she waved her hands. "That was definitely too much potassium."

Briana privately thought she was right about both but she kept that to herself as Counselor Hill along with two other adults with fire extinguishers came running up to them. The two other adults diverged and went into the building, but Counselor Hill came directly to them.

"Was there anyone else in the lab?" Counselor Hill asked, her panic a bit more obvious than Toni's.

"No," Toni said quickly. "And before you say anything else, we weren't actually trying to blow anything up."

Counselor Hill turned away but Briana swore she could hear her mutter "this time" under her breath before she gave an 'all clear' call over the radio she wore on her belt.

Half an hour later both Toni and Briana were sitting in the camp director's office, Toni swinging her feet while Briana ducked her head and hoped against hope that they weren't about to get sent home. She drew a shaky breath, her hands trembling and her chest hurting, and when Toni reached out the only thing Briana could do was wrap her hand around Toni's and grip as tightly as she could. Toni's grip was just as strong.

Director Nikki Fury came in and sat behind her desk, her frown severe as she stared at them. "I'm not even going to ask what you were attempting to accomplish-"

"Actually," Toni said, perking up immediately.

"I'm _not_ going to ask, but you should both be relieved to know that the damage was contained to the surface of a single lab station," she said.

Briana was slightly relieved. When the fire alarm had gone off she'd been having visions of the entire lab burning down.

"Clearly the curriculum here isn't challenging enough, though I'm not sure what I expected under the circumstances. So I'm going to make a deal with both of you and you'd be wise to accept it," Fury said, her gaze somehow even more intense now.

Briana immediately nodded but Toni raised her chin and looked at Fury in consideration, like she actually had a choice in this. "What type of deal?"

"I am going to place both of you in the upper level lab courses. In return, you're both going to attend your assigned labs and not do any lab work without a counselor present. If there is any more trouble from either of you, calls will be made to your parents. Agreed?" she asked, though it was more of a statement than a question.

"The upper level labs or the regular fifth and sixth year level labs?" Toni asked, ignoring Briana nudging her with her elbow.

Fury actually smiled. "The upper level labs," she said with an approving nod.

"Deal," Briana said quickly before Toni could get them in deeper trouble.

"Deal," Toni agreed with a put-upon sigh.

"Good, now get out of my office," Fury said. She didn't have to ask twice.

Once outside Briana sunk to the grass by the flagpole and stared up at the clouds slowly crawling across the sky. "No more skipping labs, Toni," she said, blinking back the tears that were hot in her eyes.

Toni sat down next to her, her fingers restlessly combing through the grass. "Okay, yeah, no more skipping. Or exploding. Though that was really cool, did you see how it climbed out of the test tube!"

Briana, despite her racing heart, couldn't help but smile. "Yeah."

*****

Toni was pretty quiet for the rest of the day, her head bent down as she picked at where the white plastic part of her left sneaker was starting to break away from the red cloth. While usually Briana associated Toni being quiet with potential disaster brewing, this time she thought it had more to do with getting in trouble. Toni acted like being in trouble didn't bother her but Briana decided that it was more that Toni just didn't let most people see that it bothered her. Well, and sometimes Toni just really didn't care if the rule she was breaking was especially dumb, like holding your hands away from the lab counter when the counselor in charge was speaking.

It wasn't until later that night when they were both changed into their pajamas and getting into their sleeping bags that Toni poked her head down, her expression lost in the near dark of their cabin. "Sorry I got you in trouble," she said, sounding about as contrite as Briana had ever heard her.

"It's alright," Briana said because she'd already forgiven Toni and it wasn't Toni's fault that Briana had chosen to go along with her.

"No, really," Toni said and disappeared back up onto the top bunk. "It would have been bad if the director had called our parents, or if she'd made us go home early. My father would have a fit if he had to come get me. Well, he wouldn't actually come, he'd send Jarvis, but he'd still have a fit when I got back home. Which is why the last time I was expelled I got home by myself, because it really wasn't that far to the subway and the taxi dropped me off at the front gate of the house, so I don't know why he still had a fit. I mean, other than the whole expelled again thing, but that wasn't entirely my fault either."

Briana nodded and wiggled down deeper into her sleeping bag. She couldn't even imagine how angry her dad would have been if he'd had to come pick her up from camp. He hadn't really wanted to let her go in the first place, but her teacher had sent home a letter about what a good opportunity it was for Briana especially since she could get a scholarship after taking first place in district science fair, and her mom had somehow convinced him. "If your dad had to come pick you up, would he hit you?" Briana asked uncertainly. Toni talked about her dad from time to time, but mostly Toni talked about what her dad was doing for work and then would stop and change the subject really fast like she hadn't been meaning to talk about her dad at all. Briana usually tried not to talk about her dad either.

There was a long pause from the top bunk, Toni not moving around at all. "No," she said finally. "Most of the time my dad doesn't even realize I'm around, even when I'm in the same room as him. He's too busy. At most I'd get a lecture and then sent off somewhere else until school starts again. My mom isn't around so much either, she's busy too."

"Oh," Briana said, and as much as she thought it might be nice to not see her dad so much, she felt sad for Toni too. At least Briana's mom noticed when she was around and talked to her and helped her with things. Briana didn't like the idea of never seeing her mom. She wrapped her arms tighter around the stuff animal she slept with, a shapeless green monster that her mom had sewn for her out of an old dress years ago.

"Does your dad hit you?" Toni asked what felt like a long time later.

Briana bit down on her lip and squirmed inside her sleeping bag. By the time she thought of what she could say the silence had already stretched on too long. A soft thump let her know that Toni had jumped down off the top bunk and a few seconds later Toni was climbing into Briana's sleeping bag and wrapping her hand around Briana's. It was a little bit of a snug fit, their feet bumping into each other a lot, but it was also warm and nice too.

When Toni's breathing had evened out, Briana closed her eyes and said as quietly as she could, "only sometimes." She felt Toni's hand tighten around hers and it didn't take Briana as long to fall asleep as it usually did.

*****

The next day Counselor Hill gave Briana and Toni papers with their new lab schedules and Toni made an overly dramatic speech on their way from breakfast about how at least now they had some time for working on their own projects instead of just following basic experimental procedure. Briana just smiled and nodded because she agreed with Toni on basic principle, but she had also seen some of the other kids in the labs and thought it was actually a good thing they didn't just let everyone do whatever experiments they wanted to do. Of course, their burned lab counter was probably ample evidence that maybe especially kids like Toni and Briana shouldn't be allowed to do whatever experiments they wanted either.

The counselor in charge of their morning biology lab sent Toni and Briana over to sit with at a counter with a pair of girls, one of whom Briana recognized as the tall blonde girl who had directed her to the right cabin on their first day at camp. The girl with thick brown curls and thick glasses sitting next to her looked up as Toni and Briana climbed up onto the lab stools.

"Are you lost or did you just get shrunk by the mad scientists across the lake?" the girl asked, her eyebrows raising.

"Be nice, Darcy," the blonde girl said absently without looking up from the thick book she was reading.

"Neither," Toni said proudly. "We're geniuses and the director of the camp decided we'd be far less bored in the advanced labs instead of with the classes for children."

Briana smiled - that was the first time anyone who had applied the word 'genius' to her had ever made it sound like a good thing.

Darcy suddenly grinned. "Wait! You're the two that burned down one of the chem labs, right?"

"Well, not the whole lab," Toni admitted.

"Pity," Darcy said. "But props for trying."

Briana was about to say that they hadn't actually been trying to burn down the chemistry lab when the blonde girl looked up sudden and turned to Darcy.

"Just because you don't like chemistry doesn't mean you should conspire to burn down a laboratory," she said, smiling briefly at Briana and Toni before returning to her reading.

"And that's Jane," Darcy said. "Say hi to the child geniuses, Jane."

Jane mumbled "hi" but didn't look up again.

It wasn't half an hour later, after their lab had started for the day, that Toni and Jane were having a loud discussion that involved three chalkboards, the rest of the students either watching with awe or ignoring them completely.

"Are you getting _any_ of this?" Darcy asked, leaning in to Briana as she doodled on the edge of her lab worksheet.

Briana nodded. "Well, most of it. Isn't this supposed to be the biology component though?"

Darcy shrugged. "I think so. I don't know. I'm just here because Jane is here and her mom didn't want her going off to camp alone."

"That's nice of you," Briana said, though she thought if she had a friend who was going to another camp and didn't want to go alone, she'd want to go too.

"Be careful with yours though," Darcy said, nodding to where Toni was standing on a chair so she could reach high enough on the chalkboard. "Believe me, once they say 'drive across the state with me so we can sneak into an observatory', there is no going back."

"I'll be careful," Briana said, though she already knew that if she could drive and Toni called, she'd be driving across the state and even further.

*****

The next week and a half went as smoothly as humanly possible with one hundred kids gifted in science and athletics all cooped up together in one camp could possibly go, at least from Briana's perspective. They didn't sneak out of their labs anymore because even if the lab itself wasn't very interesting Toni now had Jane to hypothesize and argue with and Jane never wasted an opportunity to talk about astrophysics with anyone. Briana actually found most of the lab work to be fairly interesting and one lab included a disassembled x-ray machine that both Briana and Toni found fascinating.

In the chemistry lab Briana got into an argument with a girl named Victoria, their voices actually exceeding Toni and Jane's and catching the attention of everyone else in the lab as Briana followed Toni's lead and dragged a stool over to the blackboard so she could prove that she knew what she was talking about. Afterward, though Briana felt a little dizzy with elation, half the kids in the lab congratulated Briana for out-doing Victoria, who was apparently a bit of a dangerous know-it-all. Toni had high-fived Briana and explained that while not all scientific progress was made through arguing at least some of the stupidity was pushed back.

During free time one afternoon, four days before camp was due to end, Briana and Toni walked around the lake, Toni waving her hands with enthusiasm as she spoke and only occasionally remembered to stop and lick her dripping ice cream cone. Briana listened, interjecting when she could provide more concrete data about something, and they were nearly back to the main campground when they heard shouting coming from the docks.

Toni ran down the small incline without hesitation and Briana followed automatically. It was funny how two and a half weeks rooming with Toni had overwritten what Briana would have previously considered all of her good common sense. There were three kids standing on the main dock, Briana guessed from their swimsuits that they were on the athletics side of the camp, and they were probably fourteen or fifteen, given that they were all tall, musclebound, and practically shimmering in the afternoon sunlight.

"I'm going to kill all of you! All of you!" a voice was shouting from out in the lake. Briana shaded her eyes with her hand and looked out to see that someone was out on one of the rafts. Loki, she realized a minute later, noticing Loki's long black hair slipping forward over her shoulders. After that she realized that there were no paddles on the raft and Loki wasn't wet at all, and she deduced what had happened pretty quickly.

"What's that? You're going to go crying to your mommy?" one of the girls on the dock taunted with her hands cupped around her mouth.

"Too late, you're already crying like a baby," another girl called, and all three dissolved into laughter again.

"You're dead!" Loki screamed, the pitch of her voice nearing hysterical.

Briana looked again, saw how tightly Loki was gripping the main rope on the raft, and tugged on the edge of Toni's shirt. "I don't think Loki can swim."

"Wonderful," Toni grumbled. "Well I suppose we can't let her die out there."

"Probably not," Briana agreed, even though Loki had seemed particularly fond of teasing her and Toni whenever they bumped into each other.

Toni moved closer to the dock. "I'm going to go tell Counselors' Hill and Coulson that a bunch of the big scary teenagers stranded a little kid out in the middle of the lake," she shouted and then stepped back and motioned Briana out of the way while the three girls went running off.

"I think Counselor Hill is probably by the cabins," Briana said, turning toward the path that led to the main campground but stopping when Toni grabbed her hand.

"That was just to get them to go away so we could go out there without getting tossed in too. Come on. You can swim, right?" Toni asked as she tugged Briana down to the dock.

"In a pool," Briana said, but she kicked her shoes off along with Toni and considered the distance between the dock and the raft. She could probably swim that, though she had no idea how they were going to get the raft back to the dock once they were out there.

"Don't move, Loki! We're coming to you!" Toni shouted, waving her hand to Loki and then diving into the lake.

Briana borrowed one of the hair ties Toni had left behind to pull her hair back and then jumped in with a small shout. The water was colder than she'd expected, and deeper, but she found the surface and began to swim after Toni. After what seemed like a really long time they reached the raft and hung onto the sides so they could catch their breath.

"I'm going to fall and I can't swim," Loki said frantically as she clung to the rope. "If you knock me off I am going to drown you with me!"

"Oh shut up, we're saving you," Toni said, spitting out a mouthful of lake water.

"Loki, can you give us the rope so we can pull you back to the dock?" Briana asked, trying not to rock the raft too much as she held on with one hand and treaded water desperately.

"No! I'm going to fall," Loki said, precariously close to a wail.

Toni rolled her eyes and grabbed onto one end of the rope. "We're all going to drown if you don't give us the rope, so if you don't let go I'm just going to pull you in," she snapped and sure enough Loki let go of the rope.

"That wasn't very nice," Briana said as she swam over to Toni and latched onto the rope with her.

"We're not waiting to get hypothermia out here while Loki decides to give up the rope," Toni pointed out as she started to swim in the direction of the dock, Briana a few feet behind her as they pulled and swam at the same time.

Briana switched over to swim on her back because it was easier to keep the water out of her eyes and mouth, and when she glanced back to the dock a few minutes later she decided that they were only minutely closer. "Toni, if we keep going at this pace it's going to take us an hour to get back to the dock. I can't swim that long," she said, gauging the distance the best she could.

"More like an hour and twenty minutes, give or take five minutes depending on how long we can keep a steady pace," Toni said, stopping pulling and treading water again. "Okay, no. We have to think of this as scientists. What do we need to increase our speed?"

"Either a lighter weight or more force pushing and pulling on the weight," Briana said promptly.

"We could push Loki off the raft and make her hold on and kick from behind," Toni suggested quietly.

Briana glanced to where Loki was holding onto the hook on the raft with a death grip. "I don't see that happening in the near future."

"We could build fins for our feet out of stuff we find around the camp," Toni suggested, brightening at the idea of building anything to solve a problem.

"We could go find Counselor Hill. It wouldn't take as long," Briana pointed out.

"Or you could just ask for some help," a voice called from the dock.

Briana looked back to see the two athletics kids they'd met in the woods on their first night at camp, both stripping off their clothes to reveal swimsuits underneath.

"We'll be right there, don't drown," the girl with red hair shouted, and the pair dived in simultaneously. They were much faster swimmers than Briana and Toni and they reached the raft in minutes.

"You two go on the other side of the raft and kick and push, we'll pull from this direction," the girl with cropped hair said and Briana and Toni gratefully swam around to grab onto the raft.

"On three," Toni called, and they were soon off and making good progress across the lake. By the time they reached the dock there was a whole crowd of kids and the tallest blonde athlete, Loki's sister, pushed forward to get Loki off the raft and carried her back onto land.

Briana and Toni accepted the help of the two girls who had assisted them getting back up onto the dock and sat down with exhaustion almost immediately. Toni was grinning and Briana grinned back because even though she was cold and wet, they had rescued Loki and that was almost more fun than nearly burning down the chemistry lab.

"Mother and Father would be so distressed if you were to drown," Thor was saying to Loki, petting her sister's hair even as Loki was pulling to get away from her older sister's embrace.

"I recognize you," the girl with cropped hair said. "You were the two science kids that were in the woods the first night."

"Toni and Briana," Toni said.

"Clara and Natasha," the girl with cropped hair said and rolled her shoulders.

"What happened out here?" a voice called and Clara groaned.

"Counselor Coulson, some of the athletics campers left one of the science kids out in the lake and we rescued her," Natasha said, frowning her disproval at the gathered campers.

Counselor Hill arrived only seconds later. "Toni! Briana! You know you're not allowed to swim unsupervised. You aren't even wearing your swimsuits."

"I didn't even bring my swimsuit, because I wasn't planning to swim," Toni said as she shook the water out of her hair and shoved her feet back into her sneakers without putting her socks on first.

Stephanie, who Toni and Briana ate picnic-style meals with on the days they were allowed to eat outside, pressed through the crowd. "Counselor Coulson, I know who put Loki out in the water. I saw them running away from the lake."

By that point everyone was speaking at once except Briana and Clara and they both put their hands over their ears as Director Fury blew her whistle from the end of the dock. 

"Everyone involved will assemble at the flagpole in ten minutes. Those of you who need to dry off and change clothes, go do so now," she called, not needing a bullhorn to be heard by everyone.

Briana and Toni went back to their cabin, dripping water and chatting eagerly the entire way there.

*****

It was the last morning of SHIELD Summer Camp and Briana didn't want to go home. Her duffle was packed and her sleeping bag rolled up and they'd had breakfast and she'd said goodbye to Thor, Sif, and Loki whose parents had come to get them the night before so they wouldn't miss their flight out of the country. She'd given Counselor Hill a hug, who had seemed surprised but had ushered Briana and Toni out in front of their cabin to take two Polaroid pictures of them so they would each have one.

Toni was talking so quickly that Briana couldn't make any sense of what she was saying, but she was packed up with her suitcases and waiting down by the circle driveway for Jarvis to pick her up before the buses arrived for everyone else.

"I don't know where my next school will be yet, my dad's probably picked one out by now, but I can write you at your address until I know and then I'll send you my address and you can write me at my school," Toni said, her hands folding over the paper that Briana had wrote her address on. "I'll be at another camp for the rest of the summer though, but I bet I can get letters there too."

"I'll write you back," Briana promised, because she couldn't imagine not writing Toni back.

"And maybe next summer we'll be at camp again and we can share a cabin again," Toni said, twisting back to look over the campground where everyone was still running around as they finished packing and saying goodbye.

"Maybe," Briana said, though she didn't know how likely it was that she'd get another scholarship to come back to camp. She'd try though.

"And you have my address and my home phone number, and Jarvis will know who you are, so if you have to you can sneak on the trains and come to my house, even if I'm not there. I do come back sometimes on weekends. If you need to," Toni said earnestly.

"Okay," Briana said, and she did have Toni's address and phone number even though she'd never used them. She knew what Toni meant though. "Toni," she said, her eyes catching on a very expensive looking black car that was pulling into the parking lot.

Briana stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Toni, relieved when Toni hugged her back.

"I'll write!" Toni called, waving frantically as Jarvis took put her suitcases in the back.

"Bye!" Briana shouted, waving back and trying to smile as Toni got in the back of the car and less than a minute later was gone from the parking lot.

Briana stayed down in the parking lot until the buses started to arrive. She found the one that would take her to where her mom would come pick her up and climbed aboard. If Toni had been there she would have suggested that they tried to sneak away from the buses and stay at camp for the rest of the summer. But Toni wasn't there, so Briana stayed put and smiled when Clara and Natasha came and sat in the seat in front of her and Stephanie and Bucky sat across the aisle. It turned out she didn't live too far from Steph and Bucky's neighborhood and they made plans to try and see each other again before the summer was over.

When they were almost home Briana stood up and opened her window, looking out across the city streets as they passed and deciding that when she got home she was going to look up where Toni's house was, just because she wanted to know. Because maybe then Toni wouldn't seem so far away. "Bye," she said again, out the window, and she thought she maybe heard Toni's voice say 'later, not bye'.

The End


End file.
